Anie Samson, Vision Montréal mayor of Villeray–St-Michel–Parc-Extension. Criticism continues to mount against the mayor of Villeray–St-Michel–Parc-Extension, Anie Samson, for her handling of the possible new Inuit patient residence at 7500 St-Denis. In a press release sent out this morning, Projet Montréal came out strongly in favour of the project. Party leader Richard Bergeron harshly criticised Samson's previous comments on the topic: "The defensive strategy of the mayor is an insulting approach as much for the Inuit as for Montrealers. Demanding a moratorium (on the project) is excessive, and it's part of a profoundly unhealthy, slippery slope towards ethnic and social profiling." As previously covered in Spacing, for the past few months there has been a divisive debate going on in Villeray about the possible conversion of the former Chinese Hospital on 7500 St-Denis to an Inuit patient residence. This proposal ignited an opposition movement which destributed flyers throughout the neighbourhood and put together a website entitled "Imminent Danger". Their arguments were based on little more than thinly-veiled "drunk Indian" stereotypes and they attempted to incite opposition to the project with alarmist predictions. Thankfully, their appeals were not well received by many Villeray residents. According to one resident: "I was so scared when I received that flyer in my mailbox. I felt sick to my stomach; it was so racist, so demagogic, and it said such horrible things about the Inuit." Supporters counter organised and successfully packed a public consultation with residents favourable to the project. According to group spokeswoman Geneviève Beaudet, "“I want the Inuit to know that it’s not everyone that shares these ideas. We want to welcome them the best we can.”

Stapling a poster to a Saint-Viateur hydro pole A Quebec Court of Appeal judge has ruled that Montreal's anti-postering bylaw, which prohibits posters from being stuck to public street furniture, violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Montreal will now have to find a way to legally accommodate posters on public property. We have local activist Jaggi Singh to thank for this ruling. Ten years ago, he was charged with sticking a poster on municipal property, and with the help of civil rights lawyer Julius Grey, he took his case through the ...

Thanks to everyone who answered Spacing Montreal's survey about Montreal's Top Spots. We got over 120 responses from readers.  You can read the results for best tourist attraction, best street, best people-watching spot and best artwork. Municipal politics in Montreal can be farcical, depressing and even disturbing. So when the Spacing Montreal team got together to hatch this survey, we made a point of sticking with the positive. There's got to be some good people doing some good things out there, and fortunately our readers were willing to give our politicians kudos for that. Best City Council ...

Vision Montréal leader Louise Harel with victorious RDP-PAT mayoral candidate Chantal Rouleau (photo: Vision Montréal). Rivière-des-Prairies--Pointe-aux-Trembles now has a new borough mayor with Chantal Rouleau's victory in last week's by-election. With this gain, Vision Montreal now commands both the local mayorship and a majority of seats on the local borough council. The election results are as follows: Chantal Rouleau (Vision) ------- 4,885 (40.7%) Barbara Pisani (Union) ---------- 4,167 (34.7%) Colette Paul (Projet) ------------- 2,100 (17.5%) André Bélisle (Ind.) --------------- 843 (7.03%) The most notable aspect of the results was the abysmal turnout: 15.8% of eligible voters. Voter participation in municipal by-elections is notoriously low but generally it is above at least 20%.

The City of Montreal invokes a more tranquil future next to the Turcot While summer may be the peak of construction season here in Quebec, it appears that spring is the height of the planning season. This is the inevitable conclusion one reaches after the recent flurry of plans and counter-plans concerning the future of the Turcot Interchange. In this post, I’ll compare some of the details from these plans and discuss the what all means as we near the end of a process that has pitted dozens of citizens’ groups, regional environmental groups, the Cities of Montreal and Westmount and opposition parties against Charest’s government, at a time when ongoing allegations of corruption have seriously undermined the Ministry of Transport’s legitimacy. In case you’re already dizzy from the many alternatives flying around, I’ll recap the three that are currently on the table, providing as much detail as is currently available. A revised plan by your friendly neighbourhood MTQ Tired of looking like a bully that wants to throw people out of their homes so they could play with their toy cars, the Ministry of Transport revised their plan by reducing the number of expropriations required on rue Cazelais from 160 to only 100. While Minister of Transport, Julie Boulet, warned this would result in higher costs, the MTQ believed this gesture would subdue the most vocal opponents of the project. Given ongoing critiques that vehicle capacity should be reduced in favour of better public transportation options, and that the whole project be reconceived to reflect its urban context, it is comical to imagine that the MTQ believed that by simply addressing the question of expropriations would win them any public favour. Nonetheless, this “Turcot-lite” remains the official plan on the table.